By Mark Baber
July 14 – Arsenal Football Club finally have an aircraft branded in their name, it was revealed as the players set off for the pre-season Barclays Asia Trophy in Singapore.
The Boeing 777-200LR plane in Arsenal colours, unveiled by Emirates on Monday, features the Arsenal crest alongside images of Aaron Ramsey, Danny Welbeck, Mikel Arteta and Jack Wilshere on one side of the aircraft, and Santi Cazorla, Mesut Özil, Alexis Sanchez and Olivier Giroud on the other.
Under the great Herbert Chapman, Arsenal were the first (and still only) club to have a London Tube Station named after them, a lasting legacy which has seen the old Gillespie Road station called Arsenal by all except the occasional Tottenham-supporting tube driver.
However, under Arsene Wenger Arsenal have lagged behind somewhat in the aviation stakes, with Manchester City having unveiled their own plane “Blue Moon Rising” back in 2011.
Manchester United enjoy away trips in an Air Asia A320 ‘Red Devils Airbus’, Barcelona fly high in a Boeing 777, designed to showcase their controversial partnership with Qatar Airways, Borussia Dortmund fly in a Turkish Airlines craft in their club colours, Liverpool in a Garuda Indonesia Airbus A330, Chelsea in a Boeing 747 and Real Madrid also in an Emirates Boeing 777.
Even QPR have had an Airbus A320 painted in the club’s colours of blue and white, with a QPR shirt with ‘Alan McDonald 5’ on the back.
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